What's ado?

Inspirational nurses aren’t necessarily the people we would expect, predecessors, older nurses on the unit, instructors, or provocatively vocal nurse speakers - often we are a little re-inspired as to why we do what we do, or why we stick with nursing when watching a nursing student, or graduate nurse perform a skill for the first time, or when we see them make that first connection with what they’ve learned and what they’re doing. A powerful reminder when we observe the raw instinct and enthusiasm that drives them, long before self doubt, hesitancy, and criticism overwhelms their abilities. When we do the same things over and over, we almost begin to lose that first excitement we felt, that first realization, that first thrill that hit us - that we alone can make a huge impact on the lives of our patients. Inspiration truly comes in the most unexpected of places.

My first day off after a bunch of shifts in a row...

I’ve been ready to quit, throw in the towel on many occasions after a shitty shift, but I’ve come back. I’ve gone so far as to search for other jobs, but I come back to work the next day - I come back because I recognize it was maybe a shitty shift, not a shitty job. Yesterday, and the yesterdays before that I felt stuck; stuck with a crappy assignment, stuck with a needy patient, stuck with an impossible family member, stuck with a crashing patient or emotionally stuck after losing a patient. I come back to work the next day because I’m learning how to get unstuck - this work I do as a nurse, even on its most stressful day teaches me humility, patience, understanding…and challenges my mind to figure out complex situations. I come back for my coworkers who are like a family, and I come back because I worked damn hard to get to where I am, and quitting this discipline - one I love on a very basic foundation, is not an option. I come back for the patients I have yet to meet.

What wonderful thing didn’t start out scary?

Giving report back to the nurse you got report from

I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.